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When I was in yoga teacher training, we passed around Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattie, under the common belief that this was a magic book.

No matter who held it, and no matter which page was randomly flipped to, Melody’s words always seemed to be exactly what the reader needed to hear.

My copy is bookmarked and slightly water-damaged. I keep it in my little meditation nook, reading it when I’m too sleepy to meditate, or when I’m feeling particularly in need of some advice.

This quote gets me. It gets me because I lived a large part of my life wondering what right I had to shine. At the end of the day, I have always been responsible for the intangible limits I’ve placed on my career, my relationships, and myself.

It’s strange to challenge myself to see how much further I could go if I really didn’t hold back. My first 23 years have been pretty sweet, so it’s rather exciting to think about yet another level of possibility.

Hope you’re well and healthy and happy. Thanks for listening to the show today! We’re talking about a touchy topic – what we eat – and we’re happy that you’re tuning in. You can find the show right here or subscribe to the show on iTunes here.

Laura has been a vegan for 2+ years and I have been a vegetarian for almost 6 (!!!) with brief periods of pescetarianism and veganism mixed in over the years. Right before moving to Korea last March, I had been happily eating vegan for about 3 months after my experiment with transitioning to vegan. You can hear our episode on that topic right here or see some of the meals I ate here.

In the show we talk about a few different facets of the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, including:

my experience being a vegetarian in Korea

what is and isn’t challenging for Laura being a vegan

The Official Podcast Boyfriend’s (read: Laura’s boyfriend’s) perspective on what it’s like to be a male vegan

We loved having this honest conversation with each other about food and our personal choices, it was really #real! It’s sometimes hard to talk about these topics, but we hope that sharing our experiences here will maybe make other people feel more comfortable with their own choices. We’re all trying our best and our best is always changing.

Again, you can find the show here or on iTunes. You can also let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments below or on Twitter or Instagram!

The official one year mark since I started living in Korea is fast approaching, and one month after that I’ll be moving away from the place I’ve called home this past year. It’s been such an incredible adventure full of high highs and low lows and a lot of pleasant in-betweens. I am so, so grateful that I took the leap in coming here all those months ago. If I hadn’t, I never would have gotten to see so much of the world, I wouldn’t have met so many great people, and most importantly I wouldn’t have been able to try so much insanely delicious Korean food.

I mean, I know we have (fairly average) bibimbap in Canada and the occasional place that serves bulgogi (but if you’ve been here a while you know Laura and I wouldn’t turn down for that), but none of it holds a candle to the food you can find on any street corner here in Korea, and for so cheap too! The local food scene is awesome and so full of dishes and treats that one year in I still haven’t tried a lot of it. I’ve been too busy eating my favourites! Yes, there are definitely some foods I really do NOT like but on the whole, I love Korean food. If you want a laugh, this video of Korean girls trying American snacks for the first time is full of them. To be honest that’s how I feel about a few Korean snacks too, but in general the food is very good.

One of my favourite new discoveries this year was kimchijeon, which is a kind of savoury kimchi pancake. While probably not the most nutritious thing you can eat (although my students insists kimchi cures cancer!), it is absolutely delicious. Here, you can get it at a lot of restaurants or even at the grocery store sometimes, but I started getting nervous about what I would do without my Kimchijeon fix when I’m back in Canada! So I decided to try and make it for myself at home. Fortunately, it’s very easy to make and not time consuming, as long as you have some yummy kimchi on hand. In Korea, families make kimchi at home once a year, for the year, and it is a very labour-intensive process. But lucky for us, we can just buy it at the grocery store!

Mix all the ingredients together into a bowl with a spoon, so that no lumps of flour remain. Heat a couple glugs of oil in a large pan (I used canola oil). Add in the batter and spread it out in the pan with the back of a spoon. The oil should be hot enough that the batter hisses when it hits the pan!

Cook for about a minute or so per side, or until crispy and slightly browned. Flip carefully!

I like to eat my kimchijeon with some soy sauce or with a bit of melted cheese on top. Yum!